The Stellar Connection

It is intriguing to me how small, quiet moments can reveal important truths to our heart and soul.
My husband brought home a calendar filled with beautiful portraits of cats. We have had cats for 27 years now, and I am very fond of our feline companions, past and present. As I was admiring the insightful portrait photographs of the various cats, old, young, male, female, I was struck by how the photographers were able to reveal intimate aspects of each cat's personality and disposition. Some cats looked back at the camera with soulful eyes, others seemed amused, others yet curious, or shy, or proud. Each portrait apparently taken with great respect and patience, revealed a being that was intelligent and had a story to tell. Over the years I have spent a lot of time communicating with my feline friends, and body language through the eyes and sounds of varying timbre and intensity go a long way as to how our cat companions let us know their moods and needs. I touched the photographs tenderly, trying to get a sense of each cat. Looking at them brought back the cats we had lost over the years to old age, illness, a bad encounter with another cat. I saw hints of those cats we lost in the pictures of the calendar. It stirred old hurts and old loves. The calendar included the story of each cat, some happy, some sad, and the pictures revealed as much in their eyes.
I remembered the words of ancient wisdom " Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." And it hit me like a ton of bricks, that we are all connected, that there is no separation. When a pebble hits the water, its effect of ripples goes all the way as far as it can go, before coming back to the point where it started. So it is with all our connections, with all the people and animals we bring into our lives. We are all stardust that comes in different shapes, made from the same batch  of ingredients, way up there where the stars glitter. If we love one, we love all, and all the love eventually comes back to its beginning point. If we hate and hurt, all that hate and hurt will come back and destroy us in turn. It was so clear to me now. No new revelation I know, but it was new to me in that I knew in my bones that this was an undeniable universal truth, constantly being trampled and ignored, constantly being practised and revered. On the cross, as He was dying, Christ asked the God who sent him our way to forgive those who were tormenting and killing him, because "They do no know what they are doing." I understand now that this was true, and remains true. In a law that I know to be real now, whoever tortures and hurts, starves, imprisons, abuses, kills another, will eventually be faced with the same circumstances that caught up with them, whether in this life or a next one, as nature is keen on recycling and balance. Some call it karma, I think of it now as undeniable science, because you are me and I am you. Animals have taught me a lot over the years. A lot about love, patience, forgiveness, intelligence, understanding, time, hope, dignity. I have learned to listen to what they say beyond the limits of verbal communication, beyond the obvious, the familiar. My cat , and dog companions as well, are reminders that there is no such thing as no consequences, no such thing as no connection between all of us on this amazing planet we continue to ignore as it signs us desperately to listen, to open up our hearts and minds and listen. The stars we see in the others' eyes are reflections of the stars above and their laws. Your cat and dog know it, and now, I know it ,too. These laws are in place here, too. So be kind, be patient, be wise. There is no me and you. There is only love that is waiting for all of us to understand.